Last week, the first steps were taken towards a new IPBES expert statement on transformative change. The expert statement will be based on the global IPBES report from 2024 on the same topic and relate its key messages to a Danish context.
On Thursday, October 2, the work on yet another IPBES expert statement officially began when the Danish IPBES office, together with the two future lead authors, Associate Professor Justine Grønbæk Pors from Copenhagen Business School and Professor Katherine Richardson from the University of Copenhagen, invited to the initial workshop for the statement.
The upcoming expert statement will be based on the global consensus report Assessment Report on the Underlying Causes of Biodiversity Loss and the Determinants of Transformative Change and Options for Achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity, also known as the Transformative Change report.
Read more about IPBES global consensus reports
The workshop also built on the symposium “Closer to transformative change – systemic solutions to the biodiversity crisis” held in February in collaboration with Copenhagen Business School, which explored how transformative change can be created in Denmark.
The global Transformative Change report examines the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss and outlines the actions needed to achieve the UN’s 2050 vision for biodiversity. In doing so, it highlights the critical importance of transformative change in reversing the biodiversity crisis.
Transformative change is defined by IPBES as:
A fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.
– IPBES (2019)
Begge hovedforfattere til den kommende ekspertudtalelse er enige om, at det både er yderst vigtigt og relevant at få netop denne rapport oversat til en dansk kontekst. Lektor Justine Grønbæk Pors forklarer det således:
The global IPBES report documents the importance of thinking systemically about biodiversity. It emphasizes the need to approach and implement change in ways that involve legislation, regulation, valuation, understandings of nature, behavior, and issues of justice and equity. This understanding of coherence and connections is also crucial in a Danish context. .
– Associate Professor Justine Grønbæk Pors, CBS
Professor Katherine Richardson agrees and and places the report in the context of a larger global movement concerning our recognition of the necessity to drastically change the way we act and relate to the world around us.
There is a global “movement” underway, in which humanity is beginning to realize that civilization as we know it cannot continue to thrive unless we actively manage our relationship with the world around us. This requires creating a vision for where we want to go and how we want to distribute the Earth’s resources, including biodiversity, and doing so not only among humans, but across all living organisms. The Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity present the vision—now we must consciously transform society to achieve it.
She continues, elaborating on the importance of the work on the Danish expert statement:
I believe it is important to disseminate the report and translate its content into a Danish context, because Denmark — as part of the global community — also needs to participate in this ‘movement’ or ‘journey.’ Our expert statement can help more people understand that biodiversity conservation requires much more than creating a ‘red list’ of threatened species. It not only requires changing the way we think, but also changes to our economic systems, our legislation, and our behavior.
– Professor Katherine Richardson, KU
The workshop included participation from researchers and experts from several of IPBES Denmark’s collaborating universities, notably Copenhagen Business School, the University of Copenhagen, and Aarhus University. In its final form, the expert statement will combine knowledge from a wide range of disciplines—a particular strength highlighted by Justine Grønbæk Pors.
The work on the expert statement engages a variety of disciplines across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. This provides a unique contribution to policy work that does not separate problems into disciplinary silos. By documenting the need for transformative change and identifying actionable pathways, the statement can inform political discussions on how to move toward a greener society.
– Associate Professor Justine Grønbæk Pors, CBS
The expert statement on transformative change will be the fourth published by IPBES in Denmark. Previous publications include Valuing Biodiversity (2025), Restoring Marine Biodiversity and Sustainable Use of Marine Resources (2021) and Restoring Biodiversity and Ecosystems (2020).
The expert statements can be found and downloaded as PDFs here: Danish IPBES releases
